Holly

Calcium and alkalinity are related; If you have too much calcium, this drives down alkalinity, and if you add too much of an alkalinity supplement, your calcium will drop. Magnesium helps prevent calcium precipitation, so it does help maintain levels, to a degree. I found this online. You're in Zone 3. The author gives specific directions for how to move back into the right parameters: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm Maybe also doing a small WC will also help...? Hope this helps! Keep us informed on how things are going...

TY Jay! It's sent TY dsoz .. yeah, all the pics are from my tank, but some are old (from before the crash last Fall), so I lost some of these. I lost the firefish, coral beauty, green goniopora. Dottyback was recently caught and eaten by my brittle star (I'm pretty sure)--who now resides in my sump. Gave the Niger away cuz it was too aggressive and nipped at my corals. Haven't seen the marble star in a couple of weeks, so who knows about that. And my purple encrusting monti broke lose and fell behind the rockwork where I couldn't get to it, so it died (sad) I felt that loss in my pocketbook (whistle) I still have all the rest tho... It's not that impressive as a whole, cuz it's still a relatively young tank, but I'm workin' on it (fish)

lol Michael It's a very simple spreadsheet but it doesn't copy/paste here properly... I got the following info for each photo: common name, scientific name, max size (in an aquarium), difficulty in keeping, current req, lighting req, level of aggression, feeding regiment, reef safe or not, and a line for additional notes. I can send it over as so as I know to where/whom.... My useless degree (which I got a bazillion yrs ago, when I was still young and full of promise(laugh) ) had a focus on research; I REALLY enjoy doing this kind of thing. (nutty) This is what happens when you leave an open-ended request around someone with too much time on their hands. (whistle)

My bad - I posted the niger pic twice. Can't post the info to go with my pics cuz it's too big to upload. If someone wants to give me a reg email address, I can email it to you from my msscottish@aol account... I have it as the original Excel spreadsheet (48KB), a Word document (2MB), or a scanned JPG (2MB). Let me know which version you want (and if there's anything else you need!) Thanks!

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I'll have to try the gumbo/baster thing. I don't have any of Patrick's gumbo yet. Will make a note to pick that up. When I came in this afternoon, almost all of them were open (and the MHs were still on, which I thought was weird), so I thawed some mysis and used tweezers to individually feed each of the 16 heads. Sheesh. Seemed to take forever. My fingers were pruned up. Baster will be easier...but at least for tonight they're fed! BTW Sol, you're right about the quantity AND the post-fish-feeding thing. My arc-eye hawk kept nabbing the mysis off my tweezer so I stopped and fed the tank. That hellped. When I fed the heads, I just kept putting more mysis on each mouth as long as it stayed open and kept taking them. I think several of those big ones may've had five or six before they slowed down :eek: I'm not going on any trips soon, but this kind of coral isn't conducive to being away from home, so I might have to adopt them out. I've finally trained our family house-sitter how to do basic maintenance on the tanks, but this is asking a little too much of a young non-reefer. Thanks for all the advice!

I picked up some sun corals yesterday, and I was just reading about them - I just discovered that they're NONPHOTOSYNTHETIC and have to be fed DOH! I purposely avoid nonphotosynthetic corals! This is why I steer clear of beautiful carnations! UGH ..It wasn't mentioned to me that suns aren't photosynthetic, but I shoulda asked, I know. Why didn't I ask!? (fishhit) <--me hitting myself Do any of you have these, and if so, how often do you feed and how do you do it? (scratch) I read to give them mysid or silverside or meat, but the mouths look very tiny. Maybe a whole thawed mysid per mouth per night? Any advice on how to handle this would be appreciated. I don't want them to die. Thanks!

OOps .....forgot to include all the requested info for these ... will put all that together and post in a few (though I'm sure most everyone knows all this stuff from sight anywho!)

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I've heard it's a great movie and I can't wait to watch it, but I find documentaries like this frustrating, because I know it's a serious problem and nothing will ever change. The worst possible thing we could do is allow the pharm companies to have ANY MORE control of our healthcare. They roll us over and give it to us all day long as it is. That'd be like giving rapists the keys to a female prison. I can't think of a WORSE idea. There need to be seriously strict federally-mandated limitations on the amt of mark-up they're even allowed on their drugs. I don't mind them making a little money because ability to make profit drives research; however, the level of mark-up on many of the drugs in the country is vomitous. Doctors are just as bad. All they care about is avoiding lawsuits and they'll overtest, not diagnose, over-diagnose, and lie, all just to cover their own arses. They don't care about patients at all. It didn't take long working in a hospital to see that 100% of healthcare is motivated by two things and two things only: Making money and Avoiding lawsuits. Even the few doctors who start out with good intentions soon turn into the same robots as all the rest. The pharm industry unfortunately has our government in their pockets, just like the NRA and oil companies. It's revolting, but it won't change. Zofran is a great example. It's made by GlaxoSmithKline. It's about the only fully-safe low-side-effect anti-nausea drug for immune-weakened chemo patients with cancer. It JUST went generic and the generic pills--8mg--are still $25/pill with insurance paying half. That's $50/pill for generic!!! WTH?? The name-brand was almost twice that. PER PILL??? This is a drug for dying cancer patients. Most can't get near Zofran due to cost, so they suffer. GSK doesn't care. None of the other pharm co are any better... We're living in a virtual corpocracy. Ironically, the whole thing just makes me SICK..

Cool!! Congrats! Pls keep the pics coming!

Looks great!!

Rob, when you click "new thread" or "post reply" it brings up the white text box to type into. If you scroll under that white text box, you'll see "Miscellaneous Options" and then "Attach Files".. Under "Attach Files" you'll see a "Manage Attachments" button. Click that. When the window pops up, click "Choose File" and it will bring up your computer Desktop. Go from there. If your file is too big, you'll get that notation. Otherwise, your file will pop up on the Manage Attachments window. To make sure it uploaded properly, you can close the Manage Attachments window, and click "Preview Post" just below the original text box. It should come up then. Hope this helps!! Good luck!

Based on the amazing tank pics I've seen on this site, I'll be 96 with Alzheimers before I'll feel confident enough for any of you to see my tanks. (And even then, I'll only be confident because of the dementia) Mine look like uncleaned toilet bowls compared to the tanks on this site! :eek: Disclaimer: Any references or comments made herein in reference to Azlheimers or dementia can be understood to be inherently acceptable due to the fact that my heredity makeup is plagued on both sides by said affliction. In fact, ...wait... what was I saying ??? **blank stare** (whistle)

Garrett - I emailed a friend of mine in MN who's got a degree in photography to ask what he'd get for this kind of thing, for a D70. Photography is his obsessive hobby. Works full time in CT/MR and works PT on the wknds at a local camera shop to stay on top of the hobby. Here's what he told me: (copy/pasted) I have one of these already, excellent, sharp lens that focusses very fast http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/66987-GREY/Nikon_1987_60mm_f_2_8D_Macro_Autofocus.html I'd give my "eye teeth" for one of these http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/66989-USA/Nikon_1989_Telephoto_AF_Micro_Nikkor.html but there's no way I could afford one. THis one http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/66989-USA/Nikon_1989_Telephoto_AF_Micro_Nikkor.html is a pretty good middle point between those other lenses, you'd (obviously) be right between the 2 with this one, plus they've made about 11 million of these lenses over the years and you SHOULD be able to pick a used one up no problem. Plus this particular lens is the newest "VR" version that reduces camera shake, which only works on digital SLRs. I've used one of these http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/330643-USA/Tamron_AF272N700_SP_90mm_f_2_8_Di.html and I think it's 99% as good as the actual Nikon lenses (at least the old, manual focus one was. I'm sure the new ones would be even better) They've made 90mm macro lenses for just about ever so all the "bugs" would be worked out of them by now.

I think it's a great idea! Wish I wasn't such a dolt with computers, or I could help with the site.

Oh - and I think civicsit was right (earlier thread) - that you'd prob need a back-up of willing very EXPERIENCED folk, in case the people checking up find something beyond their realm of knowledge. Being a 1-yr newb, I'd prob feel better to have a back-up pro I could call. Maybe tie in Sol's plan, which also makes sense. People have lives and limited time. Tank-chkrs could just offer to do what they're willing to do. If they'll just be an emergency-contact person, that's great! If they're willing and able to do a daily check-up (like if they live very close to the person going out of town, etc), that's fine too. We could have a thread dedicated to people going on vacation that could post "need person to ck my tanks (listed) in (put city) from (this-date-to-this-date)" and see who's available to do what for that area. Some places have more people in the hobby than others...

Thanks! I think we have a YES on the eggs.. I got these shots tonight... Yeah, I expect nothing to come of these eggs either.:( My PJ cardinals were mouthbrooding one brood after the other for several months there, but none every materialized. Poor little pajama appetizers (whistle)

Reef's idea is good- DL and some other ID for people that sign up to be on the "tank sit" list. If people have several pets, they'll prob have someone else dropping by or house-sitting to feed the dogs/cats/horse/etc. Maybe the tank check-up time can be when the other sitter is there, so you wouldn't necessarily need to give your key to someone. Wow Kris you have a lot of critters!! :eek:

Oh, so sorry!! That's horrible! (sad) There needs to be some kind of back-up support in the club for when people wanna go on vacation. All of us panic about it, but all of us also need a vacation from life once in a while. Maybe we can put together a list of folks that might be willing to volunteer to help out...? We could require that people offering to be a tank-checkers have been a member for a certain amt of time and maybe require a few PNWMAS member references..? Something like that, just to make sure they're trustworthy, etc? If there's something wrong with the tank being checked and the tankchecker isn't sure what to do (still somewhat of a newb like me), they could contact a local member with more expertise.. That would allow for a chain of back-up to help prevent tragedies like this. None of us want to see this happen to anyone ever. :( Based on how nice the PNWMAS members I've met have been, I suspect that many of them would do something like this to help out a fellow reefer... Just a thought. 'Don't know if something like that is even possible. Maybe it's craziness (nutty) For what it's worth, I'm a housewife with small kids/tanks/animals, so I'm basically around all the time and have free time during the day. I'd be happy to stop by daily and check up on PNWMAS member's tanks while they're out of town. I really don't mind and would like to help out. I'm up in Vancouver, though, so I could only help out folks in the Portland/Vancouver area. Bob was nice enough to stop by and check our tank when we went out of town this past Dec. It totally took the worry out of my being away from home... Again, so sorry to hear ....